In 1888 and 1889, the town of Eccles was surveyed and mapped by the Ordnance Survey at a scale of 1:500, that is at about 10.56 feet to the mile. Thirteen maps at this detailed scale were made for the central area (which was only a small portion of what became the Municipal Borough in 1892). After Eccles became the MB, a further 64 maps at this scale were published so that the entire area of the Borough was covered.

A more manageable set of maps at the 1:2500 scale (about 24" to the mile), and therefore showing less detail, was also published from the survey. The area of the entire Borough was about 2 ¾ miles E-W by 2¼ miles N-S, and eight maps at the 1:2500 scale, each about 38" by 25" were needed to cover the area.

This project makes these 1:2500 maps available electronically. It shows on the maps how the Borough boundary came to be defined, and it also shows on a separate set of maps how the 1891 census was conducted, district by district, street by street.

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